When your day starts off with crepes, blueberries, and ice cream for breakfast, you can't help but think that although being a grown-up involves stressy things like mortgages and taxes, when you are a grown-up you can make decisions that involve dessert for breakfast. Sweet indulgent dessert. All in moderation though. For instance, yesterday I had oatmeal for breakfast, loaded with nuts and fruit, and tomorrow I will probably have yogurt with granola and berries. But today, on an especially fine sunny morning, I had french vanilla ice cream, sweet juicy blueberry compote, drizzled over the most delicate crepes you could imagine, and I licked the plate clean. But then I discovered that I had splattered blueberry sauce all over my pants and shirt and then spent the next 10 minutes scrubbing, and then laundry, and then I noticed that the house needed vacuuming and now I take everything back about the awesomeness of being a grown-up. If I were five I'd would have thought that purple spots on my pants were amazing and dust bunnies were something worth saving. But I also wouldn't have know how to use a stove, so there's that.
Lets talk about this summer. Hasn't this been the best summer eva? There have been so many long bike rides to the brewery, lots of late night ice cream cookie sandwich eating, lounging on the patio, and the heat, oh it has been so lovely. Weeks of 90ºF+ followed by cool overcast rainy days, rolling in and providing much needed rain for my plants in their wiltiest stages. The house is coming along so nicely. Things are falling into their respective places. I have finished most of the gardens (for this season), and now I am enjoying the fact that I can watch it grow and flourish (although I'm pretty upset with the rose slugs that are eating away at my plants and if anyone has a suggestion on how to rid them from my roses I'd love some tips). I've slowly been meeting all of my neighbors, a friendly hello here and there. Thoughtful comments about the amount of time that I've put in to making the gardens look nice. There is a real sense of community in my parts, something that I've been lacking in my life for years.
With everything finally getting sorted around here, we are expecting a few house guests for the next month. My sister and mother will arrive on Saturday for a week, and then Brent's parents for the following two weeks. Our blue couch arrives Saturday (eek) and it's been so long I have completely forgotten what it looks like. Brent's positive, I'm skeptical. This pretty much sums us up.
In light of our blue couch arrival on Saturday, I thought it fitting that I share a blue recipe with you today. I wish I had an interesting story about theses crepes. Something that inspired me, something I ate at a restaurant. But in all honesty, I woke up with a major craving for crepes. I had a fresh pint of hand picked blueberries needing to be used up, and a pint of vanilla ice cream in my freezer. I used the only crepe recipe I know. One that I make time and time again, and will probably never make another. It's simple, predictable, and delicious. It produces the most wonderful light and delicate crepes. The blueberry compote is a simple recipe of blueberries, water, and sugar. It's my favorite way too eat them. The vanilla ice cream is one that I picked up at the store. I don't have an ice cream maker (for good reasons), but if you made your vanilla ice cream from scratch, I'm sure it would take much better.
BLUEBERRY COMPOTE
makes 2 cups
1 pint blueberries
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
In a medium saucepan bring 3/4 of the blueberries and water to a simmer on medium heat.
Reduce the heat to low. Add the rest of the blueberries and the sugar and combine. Simmer until the compote has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, roughly 6 minutes.
Remove from the stove and pour into a covered bowl. Place in the fridge to cool. Can be kept in the fridge covered for a week.
CREPES
makes 8 crepes
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled + more for cooking
In a bender add the flour, sugar, milk, eggs, and melted butter. Pulse until you get a smooth batter with no flour lumps.
Heat a crepe pan or frying pan on medium heat.
Turn the oven to warm.
Add a dab of butter to the crepe pan and swirl it around covering the entire surface.
Pour a rough 1/4 cup of crepe batter into the pan, while tilting the pan in a circular motion spreading the batter evenly. Fry for a minute, or until the crepe is easy to lift with a spatula (not brown and crispy, but solid enough to hold its shape). Flip and fry on the other side for 30 seconds, or until the pockets of air begin to form under the crepe.
Place the crepes onto a plate and in the oven to keep warm while you are preparing the rest.
Once done, serve with a generous serving of blueberry compote and vanilla ice cream.
